It is unavoidable for manufacturers of organic compounds that organic chemical reactions are associated with the formation of by-products. The amount of by-product is often much smaller than that of end product. However, even a small amount of by-product sometimes chemically affects an end product, for example, by worsening the color or smell of the end product. For manufacturers of organic compounds, preventing the formation of disadvantageous by-products or finally removing disadvantageous by-products to prevent these adverse effects is part of manufacturing processes.
In such a situation, alkanediol compounds have been used in various applications, such as cosmetic preservatives and humectants, pearling agents, raw materials for synthetic fiber, raw materials for urethane compounds, and water-based inks. However, particularly in cosmetic applications, the smell of alkanediol compounds formulated in products causes a big problem. For example, the addition of an alkanediol compound to a product free from a perfume impairs the unscented product. Even in a product containing a perfume, the addition of a malodorous alkanediol compound changes the smell of the product. Hence, there has been a great demand for an odorless or less malodorous alkanediol composition in cosmetic applications.
A currently common process for producing an alkanediol composition includes oxidizing an olefin with an oxidizing agent such as hydrogen peroxide to produce an epoxy compound and hydrolyzing the epoxy compound. Because an alkanediol composition thus produced has a smell, the alkanediol composition is usually purified by distillation, which is a common purification method (see Patent Documents 1 and 2, for example).    Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 57-62234    Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 60-78928